1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk changer device which is mounted with a magazine storing a plurality of disk holding members which hold disks and which extracts disks from this magazine and performs recording/replay of these disks, and particularly relates to a loading mechanism for performing the operation of extracting disk holding members from the magazine, the operation of chucking the disks, and the operation of returning the empty disk holding members to the magazine.
2. History of the Prior Art
In recent years, there are many disk devices such as CD players wherein a magazine capable of storing a plurality of disks is provided thereto and automatic selection of one of the plurality of disks stored within the magazine is selected according to selection made by the user so that recording/replay thereof can be made, in order to reduce disk exchanging operations by the user as much as possible, thereby increasing ease of use. With such disk devices, a disk changer device is provided for selectively extracting the desired disk from the magazine mounted to the magazine mounting portion and transporting this disk to the recording/replay means, and returning the disk to the magazine again following recording/replay thereof, in order to perform sequential recording/replay of a plurality of disks by means of common recording/replay means which conducts recording/replay of the disks.
The configuration of such a disk changer device differs according to the configuration of the magazine to be used. For example, a disk changer device is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 6-290528 employing a magazine provided with disk holding members which can easily hold disks simply by inserting the disks in the plate surface direction thereof. FIG. 28 is a drawing illustrating this device disclosed in the Publication.
This disk changer device illustrated in FIG. 28 is provided with a recording/replay unit 2 capable of moving vertically as to a chassis 1, and a transporting/chucking mechanism 3. The magazine 4 is constructed such that a plurality of disk holding members 5 such as shown in FIG. 29 are arrayed so as to be extractable therefrom and replaceable thereto.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 29, the disk holding member 5 is formed in a cylindrical shape which can store only one disk 6, and is provided with disk insertion opening 5a situated on the side of the opening 4a of the magazine 4, and with a spring 5b provided internally. At the point that the disk 6 is inserted to the predetermined position from the insertion opening 5a, the disk 6 is held by the spring 5b. This disk holding member 5 is also configured so as to be extracted to the position above a turntable 2a of the recording/replay unit 2 by means of a transporting member 3a of the transporting/chucking mechanism 3, as shown in FIG. 28.
Further, regarding the device shown in FIG. 28 and FIG. 29, a cam gear 7 provided with two gullet portions 7a, two cam grooves 7b and 7c, and an arm linkage 7d is used as a single driving source, as shown in FIG. 30, and the arrangement is such that the transporting/chucking mechanism 3 is driven by means of the rotation of this cam gear 7. In this case, as shown in FIG. 30, the arm linkage 7d on the periphery of the cam gear 7 is linked to one end of the arm 3b of the transporting chucking mechanism 3, with the other end of this arm 3b being linked to the transporting member 3a via a gear mechanism 3f comprised of a large and small gear 3c, fixed rack 3e, and a rack 3e provided to the transporting member 3a, and so forth. The arrangement of the gear mechanism 3f is such that the motion stroke of the arm linkage 7d in the transportation direction is doubled and transferred to the transporting member 3a. Also, the two cam grooves 7b and 7c of the cam gear 7 are arranged so as to drive an unshown chucking unit.
Regarding the device having a construction such as shown in FIG. 28 through FIG. 30, in the event that one of the disks 6 within the magazine 4 is to be played, the recording/replay unit 2 and transporting/chucking mechanism 3 are vertically moved, and positioned at a position corresponding with one of the disk holding members 5 of the magazine 4, and then the following disk loading operation is performed by means of the cam gear 7 turning on the first direction by 360.degree.. That is to say, in the disk loading operation, first, the transporting member 3a is driven by means of the cam gear 7 rotating in the first direction by 180.degree. so as to extract the disk holding member 5 holding the disk 6 from the magazine 4. Next, the chucking unit is driven by the gullet portion 7a of the cam gear 7 so as to perform chucking of the disk 6 on the turntable 2a. Following this, the transporting member 3a is driven by means of the cam gear 7 rotating in the first direction by 180.degree. so as to cause the disk holding member 5 to move in the direction opposite to the extracting direction (i.e., the returning direction), thereby returning the disk holding member 5 to within the magazine 4. Consequently, the disk 6 chucked onto the turntable 2a is extracted from the disk holding member 5 during this moving of the disk holding member 5 and left on the turntable 2a, so the disk holding member 5 alone is returned into the magazine 4.
Also, in order to return the disk 6 which has been chucked onto the recording/replay unit 2 to the magazine, the following disk ejecting operation is performed. In this disk ejecting operation, the transporting member 3a is driven by means of the cam gear 7 rotating in the second direction by 180.degree. so as to extract the empty disk holding member 5 from the magazine 4, thus inserting the disk 6 which has been chucked on the turntable 2a into the holding member 5 in accordance with the movement of the holding member 5, thereby the disk 6 being held within the holding member 5. Next, the chucking unit is driven by the gullet portion 7a of the cam gear 7 so as to disengage chucking of the disk 6. Following this, the transporting member 3a is driven by means of the cam gear 7 rotating in the second direction by 180.degree. so as to return the disk holding member 5 to the magazine 4. In this case, the disk 6 is not extracted from the holding member 5, so the disk holding member 5 is returned into the magazine 4 with the disk 6 therein.
As described above, with the device described with reference to FIG. 28 through FIG. 30, the recording/replay unit 2 and transporting/chucking mechanism 3 are vertically moved, and positioned at positions corresponding with each of the disk holding members 5 of the magazine 4, thereby allowing the disks 6 to be extracted from the magazine 4 in a horizontal manner and chucked onto the turntable 2a of the recording/replay unit 2 in that same state. Consequently, the complicated disk transportation operation of extracting the disk from the disk holding member and lowering the disk to the turntable becomes unnecessary, and there is no need to form a gap between this disk holding member and the disk for returning the disk holding member to the magazine. Thus, this arrangement is advantageous in that the amount of space necessary for transporting disks can be reduced, and the number of parts can be reduced.
However, there are problems with the conventional disk changer shown in FIG. 28 through FIG. 30, such as (1) increased dimensions owing to usage of a cam gear, and (2) non-continuity of control owing to non-correspondence of the direction of rotation of the driving source and the transporting direction. These problems will be described below.
(1) Increased Dimensions Owing to Usage of a Cam Gear
For example, in the event that the conventional device shown in FIG. 28 through FIG. 30 is applied to a CD changer device, the diameter of the disk is approximately 120 mm and the diameter of the chucking area at the center of the disk is approximately 40 mm, so even in the event that playing is performed in a state wherein the disk extracted from the magazine and chucked is partially overlapping the disks stored in the magazine, the disk must be extracted from the magazine by at least approximately 80 mm.
In this case, regarding the conventional device shown in FIG. 28 through FIG. 30, as described above, following the cam gear 7 making a half-rotation to extract the disk holding member 5 and chucking the disk 6, the cam gear 7 is arranged such as to return the disk holding member 5 into the magazine 4 with the remaining half-rotation. Accordingly, the transporting member 3a needs to be moved 80 mm or more with the half rotation of the cam gear 7. Conversely, as described above, the motion stroke in the transporting direction of the arm linkage 7d at the periphery of the cam gear 7 is doubled by the gear mechanism 3f and transferred to the transporting member 3a, but even in this case, the cam gear 7 needs to have a diameter of at least 40 mm or more. Accordingly, a large diameter cam gear 7 needs to be provided in the vertical direction, thus increasing the height-wise dimensions.
(2) Non-continuity of Control Owing to Non-correspondence of the Direction of Rotation of the Driving Source and the Transporting Direction
Regarding the conventional device shown in FIG. 28 through FIG. 30, there is no corresponding relation between the direction of rotation of the cam gear 7 which serves as the driving source and the transporting direction of the disk holding member 5 by means of the transporting member 3a. For example, regarding the disk loading operation, the disk holding member 5 is moved in the extracting direction with the first half rotation of the cam gear 7 in the first direction, and the disk holding member 5 is moved in the opposite (returning) direction with the second half rotation, so that the disk holding member 5 is moved in two directions whereas the cam gear 7 rotates in one direction. Accordingly, the transporting direction of the disk holding member cannot be immediately determined from the direction of rotation of the cam gear 7 alone, so data regarding both the direction of rotation of the cam gear 7 and the amount of rotation from the predetermined position is required for making determination. Consequently, in the event that the user desires to change the operation which is presently being performed, there is the possibility that appropriate and speed control may not be able to be conducted. Specifically, in the event that the power goes off or so forth during an operation, the data regarding the contents of operations performed so far is lost, and in such a case, the operation being performed before power outage cannot be resumed due to the necessity of returning the mechanism to the initial state and then initiating operations, etc., and continuity of control cannot be maintained.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems of the conventional art, and it is an object thereof to provide a disk changer device which is capable of maintaining continuity of control, small, and simple, by means of perpetually maintaining a 1-to-1 correspondence relation between the direction of rotation of the driving source and the direction of operation of the disk holding member.